Starling

Description:

The Starling's plumage is mainly blackish with buff edged wing feathers and reddish-brown legs. In the winter it has white speckles above and below. The sexes are alike though the male has fewer speckles on the rump and wings. The bill is dark grey-brown during the winter. The speckles disappear through the course of the winter and by the spring the plumage becomes predominantly iridescent with green and purple. The colour of the base of its quite long yellow beak is different in males and females - it is pink for girls and blue for boys.

Habitat:

Starlings seem to feed on just about anything: insects, worms, snails, berries, fruit, scraps, suet. However, they feed only invertebrates - not "junk" food - to their young. Their beak is used to probe the ground and is powerful enough to be opened to part the ground and reach food that is buried, they can also swivel their eyes forward to look along the length of their bill to the area they are probing. They are often found with Lapwings in wetland areas, where they feed on the food that the Lapwings have disturbed - this is called commensal feeding.